MSE News: Millions use payday loans to pay the mortgage

arrowlili

i used to work as a manager of a store for one of the larger payday loan providers. it was only about 5 years ago, before the worst of the recession really hit and we used to hold cheques from the customers for a month. it could take me upwards of 2 days to audit all the cheques even back then, so i can't imagine what it's like now that the financial bubble has burst!
i did check one of our longstanding customers account once and found that the poor dear had paid close to £4K worth of interest on what was initially a £700 loan!
i justified it to myself by allowing that the customers made the choice to come to us but, after going on maternity for a year, i came back to find that i could be disceplined and eventually lose my job if i didn't hit 'sales' targets, largely based on pushing loans on people.
i quit soon after. some of the situations people got themselves into financially were just heartbreaking.
it's not all the fault of the payday loan, by any means, but this kind of loan is usually the only one readily available to the financially desperate and their charges are extortionate. when i was there it was £13 pcm on every £100. so even if you paid that £13 you'd still have to pay it again the next month unless you could pay the £100 off in full (no part payments allowed)
hope things have improved since then!

corbyboy

I absolutely love MSE. It's a great site and I visit it every day.

But the news section is becoming pretty ridiculous.

Firstly, the news article doesn't mention how this data was collected. There isn't even a link to the original research.

And the YouGov surveys are very dodgy. I used to do them and you would get paid 50p but only if you were eligible for the survey. So if the first question is "have you ever taken out a payday loan?" savvy users will always choose "yes" or they will get kicked out of the survey and not get paid.

Also I notice the original title of the article was "Millions use payday loans to pay the mortgage." This is a terrible headline to use considering the Shelter article states "almost one million people using payday loans." "Millions" and "almost one million" are not the same.

Please Martin, don't let your website become synonymous with terrible journalism.

ALIBOBSY

I do yougov surveys and did answer this question. I belive it was NOT a screening question (don't seem to get those type on you gov often). It was in amongst a number of monthly questions on various subjects-which party would you vote for in a GE now, something about tv (x factor or strictly I think) etc etc.
FWIT I answered no and still got my 50 points (50p).

Ali x

DVardysShadow

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

I do yougov surveys and did answer this question. I belive it was NOT a screening question (don't seem to get those type on you gov often). It was in amongst a number of monthly questions on various subjects-which party would you vote for in a GE now, something about tv (x factor or strictly I think) etc etc.
FWIT I answered no and still got my 50 points (50p).

Ali x

OK, the survey does not intentionally discriminate, but given the evidence above, there is quite plainly some unintended bias.

corbyboy

DVardysShadow wrote: »

OK, the survey does not intentionally discriminate, but given the evidence above, there is quite plainly some unintended bias.

Not forgetting of course that poorer people are more likely to be doing paid surveys in the first place.